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Malta has become the latest ‘point of presence’ in the fast-growing global network of data centers operated by Internet Vikings, strengthening its position as a frontrunner in the field of cloud hosting for the iGaming industry.
Following its most recent deployment in Singapore, Internet Vikings can now provide services to Maltese-licensed companies via the new virtualisation platform – a first physical setup for Internet Vikings in Malta.
According to the rules of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), while remote gaming operators may have their gaming equipment and servers located anywhere in the EU/EEA, a forensic live copy of the players’ database, financial transactions database and gaming transactions log database must be located in Malta.
In other words, in order to obtain Maltese registration, licensees need to establish a node in Malta for the purpose of replication of essential regulatory data. Moreover, the information security level must be recognised by ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certificate.
With their ISO 27001 certification achieved on 2 March and the implementation of a new hosting location for virtual servers, Internet Vikings is now fully compliant with the MGA regulations and thus able to offer their services to Maltese-registered operators.
“Now, with Internet Vikings having deployed its infrastructure in Malta, which is a strategic place for online gaming companies, we cement our position as a leading provider of hosting and related services for the iGaming industry,” said Internet Vikings CTO Victor Jerlin.
Peter Ekmark, CEO at Internet Vikings, added: “The addition of a new datacenter in Malta expands Internet Vikings’ capacity to offer premium hosting services. The iGaming industry has specific customer and regulatory requirements and demands a bespoke service that we are dedicated to providing.”
The global network of data centers for Internet Vikings now includes Malta, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Taipei, Singapore, Sydney, Oklahoma City and São Paulo.


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NEW LEVEL OF LUXURY FOR RSSC
Regent Seven Seas Cruise has signed a deal with Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard to build what it describes as “the most luxurious cruise ship in the era of modern cruising” with delivery scheduled in summer 2016. The new ship, which will accommodate 738 guests, will be named Seven Seas Explorer and will be the luxury line’s third all-suite, all-balcony ship. At 54,000 gross-registered tons, Seven Seas Explorer will be the largest vessel in the Regent Seven Seas Cruises fleet. The contract price for the vessel is approximately US$450 million, making Seven Seas Explorer the most expensive luxury liner ever built. Financing for the project is being arranged by Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank with support from SACE, Italy’s export credit facility. Frank J. Del Rio, Prestige Cruise Holdings chairman and CEO, said: “This new ship order represents an exciting time of growth for our company as we build the next generation of cruise ships for the world’s most inclusive luxury cruise line. Seven Seas Explorer will be the most luxurious cruise ship ever built, boasting one of the highest space ratios and staff-to-guest ratios ever seen in the modern era of cruising enabling us to deliver the highly personalized service and extraordinary experience that is the hallmark of the Regent brand.” With the addition of the Seven Seas Explorer, Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ overall fleet capacity will grow nearly 40%, making the brand the world’s largest luxury cruise line. Sail on over to http://www.RSSC.com for more.

domain: news


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When Samy Kamkar lost his American Express card last August and received its replacement in the mail, something about the final digits on the new card set off an alert in the hacker lobe of his brain. He compared the numbers with those of his previous three American Express cards—as a universally curious security researcher and serial troublemaker, he’d naturally recorded them all—and a pattern emerged.
So Kamkar sent out a message to his friends on Facebook, asking them to send him the final digits of all of their current and most recently canceled AmEx cards. Ten friends responded, and the same disturbing pattern applied to every number he checked: With any given card, Kamkar found he could apply his trick and predict the full number of the next card they’d received.
Kamkar immediately saw the potential for a nasty fraud technique: Any hacker who’d compromised a card number could predict the card’s replacement as soon as it was reported stolen—and then, using the date of the previous card’s cancellation, figure out the replacement's expiration date too. “The day that card is cancelled, as soon it gets rejected, two seconds later I know what your new number and expiration date will be,” Kamkar says. “If I were doing fraud, that would be pretty useful.” The trick could be applied again and again, stealing new card numbers as fast as American Express could generate them.
Three months later, Kamkar has built a device for just $10 that’s designed to prove the danger of that number-predicting vulnerability, and to convince American Express to fix it. His watch-sized gadget, which he calls MagSpoof, can store more than a hundred credit card numbers and emit an electromagnetic field that’s strong enough to hit a credit card reader’s sensor from close proximity, sending a signal that imitates a credit card being swiped. Kamkar’s device also includes a button that implements his prediction algorithm; if a criminal using MagSpoof were to find that a credit card they tried to spoof had been cancelled, the device could immediately generate the victim’s next card number. A week or so later, when the fraudster could be fairly sure a new card had been freshly activated, they could steal it again. “As soon as the card gets declined, you press a button and it switches to the next number,” Kamkar says. “It sucks for [Amex users], because they could have their new credit card stolen almost instantly.”
Kamkar admits that his attack can’t, however, access the victim’s four-digit CVV from the back of the card, which reduces the number of businesses where it can be used. And the MagSpoof hardware doesn’t look like a credit card, so a thief couldn’t convincingly hand it to a cashier or waiter. But Kamkar points out (and demonstrates in the video below) that he can use a digital credit card device like Coin to store the numbers that his device creates, a technique that would make his number-prediction trick much less suspect. “If you don’t want to hand someone this thing, you can just hand them a Coin instead,” he says.1
Coin responded to Kamkar's video by arguing its devices can't easily be used for fraud. "We require several security steps before a credit card can be used with a Coin payment device," Coin spokesperson Kayla Abbassi wrote to WIRED in a statement. "These steps allow us to verify identity, as well as the validity and ownership of each card, based on information such as the last four digits of the cardholder's social security number and billing zip code." Kamkar admits that he's only loaded predicted numbers for his own cards onto a Coin device and hasn't tried anyone else's. But he suggests that Coin's security measures can be defeated, and points to an upcoming talk describing how to circumvent them scheduled for later this month at the Kiwicon security conference in New Zealand.2
As for American Express's more fundamental problem that its card numbers can be predicted, Kamkar says he contacted the company several times and finally had an hour-long discussion with an engineer who assured him the predictable card numbers weren’t a serious security risk—at least not one that it planned to fix. An American Express spokesperson followed up with WIRED to point out that AmEx users would still be protected from Kamkar’s card prediction trick by its extra protections like an extra security code embedded in its magstripe data and the chip-and-PIN technology rolling out across the United States now, which requires a chip in the card to be read to make a purchase.
“Simply knowing a card number wouldn’t allow a fraudster to complete a purchase face-to-face because a card product would need to dipped at many of the stores with EMV chip portals, or swiped. In addition, the security code embedded in the card product would need to be verified. For both EMV chip and magnetic stripe cards, the security code changes with the card number and is impossible to predict,” writes AmEx spokesperson Ashley Tufts. She also noted that the company uses other security measures that it declined to detail.


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Qantas confirms 2021 travel dates to US, UK, Singapore, Japan, Fiji – so when will YOU be able to jet off overseas?
Qantas has officially confirmed Australians can pack their bags for an overseas holiday from December 18.
The country’s flagship airline has provided the exact date holiday-hungry residents can book flights to popular destinations like the US, UK, Canada and Singapore.
Biosecurity laws banning outbound travel without an exception will end on December 17 – the day before flights resume.
Qantas has scheduled flights to London, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Singapore to commence from December 18 a spokesperson revealed to Yahoo Finance.
Qantas has officially confirmed Australians can pack their bags for an overseas holiday from December 18 (pictured, a tourist in Canada)
The country’s flagship airline (pictured) has provided the exact date holiday-hungry residents can book flights to popular destinations like the US, UK, Canada and Singapore
Australians will additionally be able to pack their bags for a highly-anticipated holiday to Tokyo and Fiji from December 19.
The announcement will come as welcome news to holiday-starved Australians who were told last month by Qantas boss Alan Joyce he expected flights to a few selected cities to resume in mid-December.
Last week, the airline announced its plans to gradually bring back overseas flights once 80 per cent of the over 16s are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in accordance with the national plan.
Qantas said it expected the country to reach that target in December – triggering the re-opening of international borders as part of ‘Phase C’ of the federal government’s path to pandemic normality.
The airline said flights to cities in Asia and South Africa with low vaccination rates and high Covid-19 case numbers would not restart until at least April 2022.
Those developing world destinations include Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Johannesburg.
Qantas said it also plans to restart flights between Australia and New Zealand from mid-December 2021 as long as the trans-Tasman bubble had re-opened by that date.
The airline has predicted Victoria will be the first state to open its borders to NSW from early December, while hardline Western Australia will be the last.
It comes after Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner optimistically predicted the first flight out of Australia would be destined for London in mid-November.
Australia is considered a ‘green list’ country by the United Kingdom, meaning visitors do not have to quarantine on arrival.
Instead, tourists are required to have been Covid-tested in the three days before arriving in Britain and again on their second day in the country.
Mr Turner also correctly predicted Australians could pack their bags for a trip to mainland Europe, Fiji, Canada and the United States before Christmas time.
More to come.


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Animal microbiologist Holly Ganz cannot talk about the pet feeding regime known as biologically appropriate raw food without laughing. The increasingly popular diet is known by its unfortunate acronym, Barf. “It’s bizarrely named,” she says, laughing. It certainly runs contrary to the twee language usually reserved for the pet realm; such as Kitty Biome, a project Ganz recently raised $23,000 (£17,000) for via Kickstarter, which invited cat owners to pay $100 to have the microorganisms in their cat’s droppings analysed. The common term for the environmental impact of pet-keeping has a cute name too: pawprint. But, with humans increasingly demanding human-grade meat for their four-legged family members, pet food is estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of the use of land, water, fossil fuels, phosphates and pesticides. And this trend for raw food is, environmentally speaking, a step backwards.
It is this carbon pawprint that Ganz is working to reduce. She has been drafted in to assess the gut-friendliness of a vegan pet-food product launching in the US in July called Wild Earth. Its first offering is a dog treat made from what the blurb calls an “ancient Asian” fungi called koji. “We’re hoping,” she says, “that it will support bacteria that will help to fight inflammation and maintain healthy digestion and nutrition.”
Ask Wild Earth’s CEO, Ryan Bethencourt, what the future of pet food looks like and he has one word: “Massive.” In 2017, the global pet-food market was worth $94bn, and it is projected to grow even further as new markets open up. In China, where pet ownership is rare, the market grew by 100% last year. “If China follows the trends, we are going to see hundreds of millions more pets in existence,” says Bethencourt. He thinks these pets can be fed sustainably with his koji protein while, for the longer term, the company is working on lab-grown meat, culturing meat cells that would not require rearing or killing animals. They have already created a mouse-meat prototype for cats that, it says, will beat lab meat for humans to market because there is less red tape to navigate. But it will be some time before the technology can be scaled up accordingly.
In the meantime, can eco-conscious cats and dogs survive on a vegan diet? “Cats are obligate carnivores,” says Ganz, which means a lot of what they need comes from meat, “whereas dogs are more scavengers and have amylase genes so they can digest starch.” But even a scientifically designed vegan or vegetarian diet for dogs, says Ganz, can be difficult to devise. Gudrun Ravetz, the president of the British Veterinary Association, agrees: “Theoretically, you can feed a dog a vegetarian diet, but it’s not something you do lightly and you definitely need to do it with a nutritionist. A lot of what cats need is found in animal protein. It may well be in this fungi, but I’d want to see evidence that these are in the fungi and they’re available to the animal.”
Bethencourt describes koji as a “whole food” with a great “amino acid” profile and 10% more protein than you would expect to find in a decent steak. “We have to add a few supplements, just as any meat-based protein company does, to make sure it has the right vitamins and minerals. The food has to be enough, nutritionally, for the animal to survive, and we found our protein is easily digested by dogs.” Bethencourt, who is soon to release a nutrient profile and digestibility study, was the first guinea pig for his dog food. And while pet food is usually tested by animals in labs, Wild Earth employs a humane process where the dogs used live at home and are volunteered by their owners.
He is confident that a nutritional cat food will follow. “Cats really need [the amino acids] carnitine and taurine in their food,” says Ravetz. “They are important for vision, the heart and the immune system, among other things. A lack of them can cause all kinds of problems.
“We think we can get the right nutrition relatively easily by supplementing koji, but cats are picky, so what we need to do is make sure they really love their food.”
There is already a more sustainable source of animal protein out there: insects. While the food industry struggles to make them more appetising to western humans, dogs have no trouble lapping them up. When Haley Russell began experimenting with her own small-scale cricket farm, her discerning goldendoodle, Wren, devoured the insects whenever she got the chance. Russell and the co-founders of Chipper Pet went on to talk to veterinarians, who, she says, “confirmed that insects are great for dogs. In fact, you get a different mix of amino acids that are really helpful for food variety, which is important for people and great for dogs, too.” Like Wild Earth, Chipper Pet is starting with a dog treat in peanut, pumpkin and cricket flavour, with the tagline: “Save water. Save land. Chip in.”
Crickets could serve as a main meal, too, high in iron and omega-3 oils and vitamin B12. “It’s a complete animal protein, so there isn’t a deficiency, meaning it would be a suitable daily food.” The challenge lies in convincing pet parents that their animal will love it and a treat is merely a way for them to get used to the idea. There is also a supply issue, while edible insect farmers scale up. Again, a cat food will follow because, says Russell, “cats can be a little bit more finicky”.
Meanwhile, “premium”, “natural” and “human-grade” pet foods are on the rise with “cat casseroles” and venison sausages on the menu, and more people are home cooking for their pets. “I cook for my dogs,” says Ganz. “I have a 16-year-old, and she just won’t eat anything else. My co-founder says my dogs eat better than her children, but I didn’t have children, so they are my children.” She says there are a growing number of companies offering home-cooked pet food, too. “People are spending a lot more money on their pets,” says Ganz.
There is also a new trend for grain-free food, which vets say has no known benefits for cats and dogs, and is another way meat consumption is going up. It is a repetitive diet Ganz partly blames for the 10% of pets she has found to have digestive conditions. Her company, Animal Biome, based in Oakland, California, has big-name pet food manufacturers, such as Nestle Purina PetCare, and individual clients on its books. Customers come to her with pets that are vomiting or are suffering with diarrhoea or constipation. Animal Biome offers an “oral faecal transplant capsule”, AKA poo from a healthy animal’s gut, which “can shift the microbiome to a more balanced state – we call that a gut restoration”.
Just as in humans, a diverse diet is the route to a healthy gut, and eating the same food all the time means pets are “more likely to develop food allergies”, says Ganz. She rotates different meats for her dogs, but says “these are just debates – we don’t have answers”. However, in bad news for the planet, many of her customers report positive results from shifting to the Barf diet. “The idea is that you’re feeding the animal food similar to its natural diet. What cats would have eaten up until the 20th century was mice and birds.”
Despite there being only anecdotal evidence of benefits, it is popular in the UK, too, with raw food products such as Nature’s Menu widely available, but, Ravetz warns, “it’s tricky if you’re preparing it at home to make sure it’s nutritionally adequate. We see nutritional deficiencies with homemade diets [in general] – it’s understanding what an animal needs in the right ratio. We’re extrapolating from the human need and not necessarily getting it right.” Human health is another consideration with raw feeding. “There is some research showing that there’s potential for more contaminants – campylobacter, salmonella – which animals can pass in their faeces, so they can infect other dogs and humans.”
By far the biggest dietary issue for pets, though, is being overweight. “We’re overfeeding our cats,” says Ravetz. “We may be feeding them the right amount of cat or dog food, but then giving them treats, coupled with more animals being left at home for long periods of time, and this could correlate to less exercise.”
Instead of reaching for the treats, which is also bad for their pawprint, Ravetz suggests other rewards such as playing with them, taking them for a walk, stroking them or letting them sit on your knee. “If you do want to give treats, certainly during the training of young animals, look for treats that don’t have a high calorie content. Dogs will eat tiny pieces of raw carrot, or even pieces of their normal dry food. But take that away from their daily allowance so you’re not giving more than is needed.” And again, home feeding can increase the risk of obesity: “What might look like a bit of salmon to us,” warns Ravetz, “to a cat with a significantly smaller body size, it could be humongous.”
People should not feel guilty, she says, about how they feed their pets: “Nutritional quality doesn’t always correlate with price.” In a healthy cat, a vet-recommended dry food can be excellent. “If a cat has a certain comorbidity, we may look to use a different food, and sometimes if a cat is having urinary problems, we may look to increase its water intake and wet food, which contains significant amounts of water,” says Ravetz.
Wild Earth will be introducing a wet dog food and, eventually, aims to work nutritional variety into the range. “Right now, we think it’s a really clean protein source and that’s a really good place to start,” he says. “If you look at most dogs’ diets, they’re not diverse.” The ultimate vegan pet food, says Ganz, “would be if they could lab-grow a carcass. Cats and dogs need the blood, the bones and organs, not just the muscle meat.” But for the moment, that’s still a tall order.


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Because cloud computing is hot, because Seattle is home to some of the most advanced cloud-computing services, and because companies nationwide desperately need cloud-computing expertise, the region has become a boomtown for engineers, says The New York Times.
According to a Times piece published Sunday, startups and more established tech companies are in need of skilled engineers and mathematicians to help create complex cloud systems. This has led to a spike in wages as recruiters attempt to lure away talent from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and the Seattle-based cloud-computing offices of Facebook and Google, the Times said.
“Someone working deep inside Amazon is getting five to 20 recruiting offers a day,” Shannon Anderson, a veteran Seattle and San Francisco recruiter, told the Times. “Compensation has doubled in five years.”
The Times outlined how this is a golden era for Seattle engineers, who can make from $300,000 to $1 million depending on their experience.
But if AWS managers are flattered that other companies covet their talent, they certainly aren’t overjoyed to see former employees move to a competitor. Like most tech companies, Amazon goes to great lengths to protect trade secrets.
In 2014, Amazon sued Zoltan Szabadi, a former Amazon Web Services strategic partnerships manager, after he moved to the Google Cloud Platform. Amazon claimed Szabadi violated the non-compete terms of his Amazon employment contract.
Cloud computing isn’t the only unit where Amazon has to bar the doors. GeekWire last week noted that retailing rivals are seeking to hire away Amazon employees who have experience in supply and delivery. It only makes sense. Amazon is a frontrunner and competitors want to know how it’s done.


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British publisher signs deal with DreamWorks to develop, distribute and sell books in UK linked to major Hollywood films
A British independent publisher has signed a deal with DreamWorks Animation Publishing Group to develop, distribute and sell books in the UK linked to major Hollywood films.
John Styring, chief executive of IglooBooks, which is based in converted farm buildings in Northamptonshire and has 120 employees, said: ‘They came from LA and went into mass market retailers and saw our books. They were looking for somebody go-getting, entrepreneurial and nimble.’
Under the agreement, which will include colouring and activity books, story books, novelty and eBook formats, IglooBooks’ first launch will be a series of titles based on Penguins Of Madagascar.
Write on: John Styring is chief executive ofIglooBooks, which is based in Northamptonshire and has 120 employees
Next year it will publish and distribute print books and eBooks for Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and The Croods. Styring said: ‘We have an agreement that runs until at least 2017, and it is not just for blockbuster films.’
He said he co-founded IglooBooks in 2003 because after working for publishers including Penguin he felt he could do it himself.
IglooBooks’ adult and children’s books are now published in 33 languages and sold in 55 countries.
The company has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the international trade category and the Bookseller Independent Publisher of the Year.
Styring added: ‘There is always an appetite for a good interactive children’s book and that has allowed people like us in.
‘We are the fastest growing privately-owned publishers. In 2006, our turnover was £1.6 million, now it’s £30 million.’
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Luxer One unveils new locker solution
Luxer One unveiled its new buy online pick-up in-store (BOPIS) package locker solution at the Shop.Org show in California last week. In a statement issued last week, Luxer One said: “The Luxer One BOPIS locker service is simple for shoppers: after placing an order online, customers get an email with a QR code inside. The email directs them to go to the order pick-up lockers at the front of the store, rather than waiting in line at the service desk. When the customer arrives at the store, they scan their QR code at the locker screen and a locker door will open automatically, revealing their order.”
Luxer One added that it has successfully piloted the BOPIS locker solution with “several top 10 retail leaders”.


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A new ad from a new company called GoldieBlox is drawing rave reviews for its stereotype-busting premise: It shows little girls invading the "pink aisle" of a toy store to demand toys that set them on the path toward becoming engineers and scientists, reports the Mary Sue blog. GoldieBlox got its start last fall on Kickstarter after founder Debbie Sterling, a Stanford engineering grad, got fed up with the stereotypical girls' toys she saw everywhere, reports the Huffington Post.
Now the company has notched its first big success: It's got a deal with Toys 'R' Us to start selling its first product, called "GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine," reports Forbes. The toy kit, and others to follow, will center on a girl inventor named Goldie who must build a particular machine to solve a problem. In the first kit, users will build a belt drive to power a spinning machine. As for that ad and the premise behind it: "Downright inspirational," says Boing Boing. (Read more gender stereotypes stories.)


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The Mayr-Melnhof Holz processing site in Gaishorn is a frequent destination for the Ledinek team. The Slovenian machine manufacturer has already delivered around 40 systems to Gaishorn.
27.09. - 01.10.2021
30.08. - 02.09.2022
Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre Gothenburg,
The Ledinek Company has its representatives in 25 countries around the globe, 15 European and 10 overseas.


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Johannesburg, South Africa: 26 September 2019 – Viu, a leading entertainment streaming service, is proud to announce its latest offering, Openview’s News & Sport (channel 120), in partnership with eMedia Investments.
This partnership will see Viu as the exclusive simulcast digital partner to Openview’s News & Sport, and will provide viewers with live access to selected live Premier League games, and current affairs programming.
News & Sport is Openview’s most recent news and sport channel. The channel offers audiences in-depth reporting, analysis, current affairs segments, and sports content. As a digital partner, since 24th August, Viu is streaming live channel 120 every Saturday. Viu consumers will now have access to selected pre and post-match analysis and live Premier League games – even when they are not in front of their TVs.
Viu has 36 million Monthly Active Users (MAU’s) and in the first half of 2019 reached 2.9 billion views globally. Since its launch in February, Viu has provided consumers with South Africa’s leading local content, and the best entertainment from Bollywood, the rest of Africa, and ground-breaking Korean and Pakistani dramas.
Ryan Solovei, Country Manager – Viu Africa says: “This new agreement with eMedia Investments builds on the already successful partnership with e.tv. Viu’s content model caters for a market that is digitally-savvy, with an interest in what’s on screens locally and internationally.”
“We’re not just offering content to the drama and TV series market – our partnership with Openview’s News & Sport will offer the country’s sports fans their share of thrills, highs and lows, and all the drama from the EPL.”


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Jack Keenan, head of Diageo's spirits business, indicated last week that the brands would be sold as Diageo continues to rationalise its portfolio and cut costs. "The sales of the European brands should crystallise during the next six to nine months," said Michael Bleakley, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.
The other brands to be put up for sale are Greek, German and Italian brandies - Metaxa, Asbach, and Vecchia Romagna.
When Diageo was created in December 1997 by the merger of Guinness and GrandMet, it was left with a surfeit of brands, many of which were underperforming.
Within the last fortnight, Diageo has raised $356m (pounds 218m) by selling 14 North American brands that were losing market share. Eight were Canadian whiskies, and the rest were American bourbons and brandies.
The sale of Cinzano, Asbach, Vecchia Romagna and Metaxa will raise less for the company. This is because Diageo intends to retain the distribution rights to the brands, which give it marketing clout in their respective national markets. While the drinks businesses as a whole are valued at pounds 220m, Mr Bleakley estimates the sale of the brands will raise pounds 110m.
Further brand sales are expected in South America and the Far East. Diageo no longer feels compelled to copy the successful drinks of its competitors and is far more concerned about investing in its own portfolio of leading brands.
"The significance of these disposals is that the company is exiting whole categories where it is weak," said Alex Oldroyd, analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
The European brands, while famous in their domestic markets, earn less than their cost of capital. The Italian vermouth Cinzano is the largest of the brands, with annual sales of 2.9 million cases, but it achieves less that a 2 per cent return on capital employed. Asbach, Vecchia Romagna and Metaxa also achieve only single-digit returns.
"The portfolio is being focused on those categories where Diageo has really strong brands in premium positions," said Mr Oldroyd. This means it is concentrating its annual pounds 350m marketing spend on brands such as Smirnoff, the world's top-selling vodka. Its top five brands account for around 40 per cent of profits.
Aside from Smirnoff, Diageo has Johnnie Walker and J&B, the world's leading scotch brands, and in Gordon's and Tanqueray two of the world's top gins. Diageo sells around one third of the world's scotch, gin and vodka.
By emphasising these brands, the company aims to achieve decent growth in an industry that has been dogged by lacklustre sales and concerns about the effects of alcohol on health.
Resources will be devoted to defined segments in key markets. In Spain and Portugal, J&B whisky is a hit in the discotheques of Madrid and the waterfront bars of Lisbon. So J&B will be strongly targeted at young Spaniards and Portugese, while Johnnie Walker will court the older whisky drinker. In this way, Diageo hopes that the brands will avoid competing with one another.
In a further move to raise capital efficiency, Diageo is planning a pounds 2.6bn share buy-back. Chief executive John McGrath stated on Thursday that some sort of repurchase was highly likely.


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Currently touring Europe supporting friends and fellow Georgians Blackberry Smoke, Atlanta-based glam-rockers Biters have announced a title and release date for their second full-length album.
The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be will be available at retail outlets starting May 19th. Earache Records, the label that released 2015’s Electric Blood, is also behind this follow-up.
Kerrang! magazine, enthusiastic Biters devotees, are streaming the advance track “Stone Cold Love,” which older, unaware listeners will be forgiven for mistaking for T-Rex. Give it a spin here: http://www.kerrang.com/47483/biters-announced-new-album-future-aint-used/


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ClariVest Asset Management LLC Increases Position in CalAtlantic Group, Inc. (CAA)
ClariVest Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CalAtlantic Group, Inc. (NYSE:CAA) by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,820 shares of the industrial goods maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC owned 0.09% of CalAtlantic Group worth $3,510,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. bought a new position in CalAtlantic Group during the second quarter valued at about $138,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in CalAtlantic Group during the second quarter valued at about $154,000. Riverhead Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in CalAtlantic Group by 71.4% during the second quarter. Riverhead Capital Management LLC now owns 4,387 shares of the industrial goods maker’s stock valued at $155,000 after buying an additional 1,827 shares in the last quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CalAtlantic Group by 16.4% during the second quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,095 shares of the industrial goods maker’s stock valued at $215,000 after buying an additional 859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sciencast Management LP acquired a new position in shares of CalAtlantic Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $222,000.
Shares of CalAtlantic Group, Inc. (NYSE:CAA) traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $52.31. The company had a trading volume of 3,336,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,274,030. The company has a current ratio of 5.91, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $5,771.60, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.54. CalAtlantic Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.99 and a twelve month high of $52.73.
CalAtlantic Group (NYSE:CAA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 8th. The industrial goods maker reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.07). CalAtlantic Group had a net margin of 6.85% and a return on equity of 10.35%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. CalAtlantic Group’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. research analysts anticipate that CalAtlantic Group, Inc. will post 3.41 EPS for the current year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be given a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. CalAtlantic Group’s payout ratio is 4.75%.
In other CalAtlantic Group news, CEO Larry T. Nicholson sold 100,000 shares of CalAtlantic Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.94, for a total value of $5,194,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 714,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,121,050.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Larry T. Nicholson sold 17,033 shares of CalAtlantic Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $613,188.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 594,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,405,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 144,897 shares of company stock valued at $7,244,983. Corporate insiders own 39.50% of the company’s stock.
Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CAA shares. ValuEngine downgraded CalAtlantic Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 1st. KeyCorp reissued a “hold” rating on shares of CalAtlantic Group in a research note on Friday, August 25th. Mizuho set a $51.00 price objective on CalAtlantic Group and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 1st. UBS AG raised their target price on CalAtlantic Group from $42.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 10th. Finally, Barclays PLC raised their target price on CalAtlantic Group from $35.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 9th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.33.
About CalAtlantic Group
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It’s that time of the year, Android enthusiasts, when Google releases the first early beta of its latest Android release. We’re looking at the first Android 13 Developer Preview release that targets developers. But anyone with a compatible device can try the early Android 13 beta release. The list includes the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro and older Pixel versions.
The Android 13’s desert codename is Tiramisu, not that it matters at this point. That’s because Google ditched the beloved Android names a few years ago, deciding to focus on the numbering scheme instead.
Google typically releases the new Android developer preview in mid-February, well before its annual Google I/O event. That’s where Google announces all the software features it’s been devising since the last I/O edition, including the various consumer-facing features of the latest Android release. That’s also where Google makes available the first beta release that non-developers can install on supported devices.
Therefore, it’s at I/O 2022 that you can expect a more stable Android 13 beta download for your Pixel 6. Plenty of non-Google devices should be supported by then.
That’s to say that you shouldn’t necessarily jump on the developer version just yet. The early Android 13 beta targets developers for a reason. It’s not as stable, so it’s meant to run on development Pixel phones rather than daily drivers.
But Google announced a few Android 13 features already, without revealing all the features it might include in the software release before the final version comes out this summer.
What’s new in Android 13 developer preview
Android 13 will deliver more privacy and security features than its predecessors, and Google plans to make the user interface even more customizable than before.
The early Android 13 beta release will offer you access to a new photo picker that improves the security and privacy of your photos and videos. In Android 13, you’ll be able to share only specific pics from local storage or the cloud without giving apps full access to photo libraries. The feature will be available to devices that can run Android 11 and higher.
Another notable privacy feature is the removal of location data from Wi-Fi permissions. Apps that require permission to discover and connect to nearby devices over Wi-Fi often don’t need location data. Therefore, Android 13 will let apps ask for Wi-Fi access without calling for location data.
As for Material You UI customization, the Android 13 beta includes an option that lets users adapt their app icon color palette to the wallpaper.
Android 13 beta will also bring support for more updates via Google Play. Features like the new photo picker and OpenJDK 11 support can reach consumers who are on older Android releases via Play. But Google also plans to issue updates for Bluetooth and Ultra wideband modules that way.
Android 13 will also come with a new Quick Settings Placement API that informs users about app-specific tiles and lets them enable the tile without leaving the app to do it.
Furthermore, apps Android 13 will support per-app languages. That’s a neat feature if you want to set different default languages for different apps.
Androids with bigger screens are important
More importantly, Google is painting a clear picture that it’s interested in devices with larger screens. Rumors say that Google will launch its own foldable phone soon. Separately, other leaks revealed a renewed interest in tablets. With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see that Google reminds developers that large-screen devices exist:
We’ll also build on some of the newer updates we made in 12L to help you take advantage of the 250+ million large screen Android devices currently running. […]
With all the momentum in large screen devices like tablets, foldables, and Chromebooks, now is the time to get your apps ready for these devices and design fully adaptive apps that fit any screen.
You’ll find more details about the first Android 13 Developer Preview release at this link.
How to get the Android 13 beta release
While the developer preview targets developers, nothing stops you from installing this early Android 13 beta on your Pixel devices. The beta program supports the Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro. You’ll have all the download information at this link.
Before you get this early Android 13 beta version, it wouldn’t hurt to check out Google’s release timeline. You should expect the first public beta in mid-March or early April. Android 13 will reach Platform Stability in June. But the release of the first final Android 13 version will come at some point in August.


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Emoji are used so often and in such volume that it feels as though they’ve been with us forever.In fact, it wasn’t until Apple released an emoji keyboard in 2011 that the Cambrian exploji ensued, a flowering to rival the birth of any language.Linguists might dispute the term—languages have verbs, emoji (probably) do not—but the emojicabulary continues to expand every year.Angela Guzman was an intern at Apple when she helped design about 500 of the company's early emoji, including one very explicit piece of fruit.Q: At the time, did you think the eggplant looked phallic?To make all the fruit and veggies part of a single set, visually.
Congressman Brad Sherman, D-California, believes the government should prohibit U.S. citizens from mining and using cryptocurrencies.He made the statement during the Wednesday, July 19, hearing of a subcommittee for the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, adding that as a medium of exchange, cryptocurrencies accomplish nothing except facilitating narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and tax evasion.“Some of its supporters delight in that if you can disempower the U.S. government from being able to prevent terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and tax evasion, you have somehow struck a blow for liberty,” he said during a five-minute statement.“That is reason enough to ban it.”Part of his argument is that mining alone requires large amounts of power that takes away from other needs and/or adds to the current power footprint.Its role as an investment is also deemed “bad” as instead of gambling in Las Vegas — which in turn feeds casinos, restaurants, and hotels that pay high local taxes — “animal spirits” are gambling on virtual coins, helping to create a market for tax evaders, terrorists, and so on.
Within 24 hours before its official event, it has practically revealed everything there is to know about the Mi Max 3.It’s a strategy LG regularly employs for its flagships but unusual for Xiaomi.Not that we’re complaining because now we know just how massive the phone is to fit its equally massive battery.But while the price tag is fortunately not that big, US consumers are again left wishing for good things they still can’t have.The Xiaomi Mi Max 3’s size is almost like just a side effect of its primary feature, that 5,500 mAh battery.There’s no denying that’s one of the largest you’ll find in the market, barring lesser known phones from the likes of Oukitel.
Hyundai's 2019 Iron Man-edition Kona suits up at San Diego Comic-ConAutoComplete: Dodge has a new, more budget-friendly drag race specialDodge's Challenger Scat Pack 1320 proves one is the loneliest number2018 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid drops base price by $1,350Why all your car's windows aren't automaticAll power windows aren't created equal
Zirtual, an invitation-only personal concierge service, is opening up a limited number of memberships today to help busy professionals survive the holiday season.Their dedicated “Zirtual Assistants” act as the point person to handle anything and everything you need, which should free up precious time for family and friends.Zirtual, and its Founder Maren Kate, are Graduates of the Silicon Valley Founder Institute.Only 50 new memberships will be available for the Black Friday weekend, and once these spots fill the service will revert to invitation only access.To secure one of these memberships check out Zirtual.com or call an account specialist at 1.800.977.9714.Packages start at under $100/month.
Founder Feedback gives you insights from the startup trenches.In a post from the Red Rocket Ventures blog, George Deeb, Managing Partner of Red Rocket Ventures, Founder of iExplore, and Mentor at the Chicago Founder Institute, shares 23 inspiring quotes for entrepreneurs, spanning a wide range of luminaries like Barack Obama and Sun-tzu.You can read the full post here, which is part of George's "101 Startup Lessons - An Entrepreneur's Handbook.""Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall" - Confucius“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”- Sun-tzu“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work”- Horace
Silicon Valley grad Tiffany Liu (Co-Founder, Logrado) was recently featured on Women 2.0 to weigh in on some of the harsh realities of running a startup and to share some insights from what she has learned since making her mark in the Valley.While most startup entrepreneurs will agree that building a company and dedicating yourself to a problem you're passionate about can be rewarding, the challenges faced by these brave (sometimes described as crazy) souls are not to be taken lightly.Now a seasoned entrepreneur herself, she knows that having to outlast self-doubt and continuously confront unexpected problems is to be expected for any startup, young or old.Demystifying some of the romanticism that Silicon Valley can exude, Liu outlines 5 realities of running an early stage startup;Reality 1: You will have to make sacrifices.Reality 2: You’ll question yourself no matter how big your ego is.
Thanos' infamous snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War may have done more than wipe out half of all life in the universe -- it potentially sucked some of the air out of this year's San Diego Comic-Con.Compare that with last year, when Stranger Things, Game of Thrones and Westworld had key panels, and Marvel showed up with exclusive footage to Infinity War, concept art for Captain Marvel and teases for Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok.The convention, which last year drew more than 135,000 people -- many of them dressed up in costumes ranging from Wonder Woman to Batman -- has grown from a niche event actually focused on comic books to an entertainment mecca drawing A-list stars and big Hollywood franchises like Marvel, DC and Star Wars."I'm just going to walk in," said Jeremy Wong, a 34-year-old project manager for a construction management firm in San Mateo, California, who has waited in line for Comic-Con's famed Hall H presentations every year since 2012.Actor Jason Momoa was among the highlights of last year's Justice League presentation, triumphantly charging down the aisle of the Hall H audience and leaving fans in stitches with his antics.While Warner Bros. has yet to confirm its schedule at Comic-Con (a spokesman hasn't responded to a request for comment), Shazam cinematographer Maxine Alexandre said on Instagram that a trailer would be coming.
It’s no secret that starting a company is one of the biggest challenges anyone can undertake.An intense desire to succeed, paired with unreasonably long work hours and high stress levels can inadvertently take over one’s life, causing tension with family and friends, and compromising health.Fashioning Change CEO, Adriana Herrera is no stranger to the tolls of startup life, and in her recent blog post for the New York Times, shared some of the roadblocks she has faced since starting up.She writes, “I was at a StartupsUncensored event some time ago where a speaker, Jason Nazar, the founder and chief executive of Docstoc, said:‘You can have your start-up and one thing.You can have your start-up and your health.
However, if you want your startup to grow or if you want to move up in the company you work for, you must always commit to the tasks at hand.When you fail to set priorities, it dramatically increases your chances of becoming bogged down by your tasks.Thankfully, Rhett Power lays out several effortless yet effective strategies to help you prioritize your assignments in an Inc. article titled “4 Bad Work Habits That Are Limiting Your Potential”:Try to accomplish the larger or more difficult assignments in the morning when you are freshest and save the more repetitive ones for later in the day.When working in a team, whether you’re the leader or not, you must always be held accountable for your actions.Here’s what Anthony Saladino, Co-Founder and CEO of Kitchen Cabinet Kings, has to say on the matter:
The document outlines its particular goal: quickening merchant transactions that use cryptocurrencies.Lengthy confirmation times, they claim, have put a real dampener on the exchange, especially considering technology is already widely available that make the whole thing instantaneous.Mastercard’s solution is to build a system that manages a “fractional reserve of blockchain currency,” with a hope of streamlining the process.They would hold customers cryptocurrencies and their fiat, supposedly allowing for the quick exchange between the two.Fractional reserve banking is really pretty common in modern finance: customers give their money to a bank thinking that their money will just sit there until they want it.But fractional reserve banking requires only the holding of a fraction of their assets at any one time.
Build-A-Bear Workshop generated buzz on social media leading up to Thursday’s “Pay Your Age” sale, calling the upcoming promotion its “biggest deal EVER.”The company, which allows children to construct and decorate their own stuffed animals, expressed on July 11 that it had received “unprecedented response” from customers leading up to the event, which would allow customers to pay their age to take home a bear or other species of “furry friend.”In other words, for $5, a 5-year-old could walk out with a newly made stuffed animal (with sound effects and accessories available for an extra cost).Build-A-Bear posted a note to its official Facebook page explaining that employees at its stores were “anticipating the potential of long lines and wait times.” Despite the warning, turnout exceeded the ambitious expectations of the 21-year-old company.Many families and children arrived at Build-A-Bear locations across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to long lines, with reports of some lines extending more than a mile long and wait times of several hours.A release leading up to the event specified that each customer “must be present for offer,” meaning there were a lot of cranky kids queued up for new toys.
The NFL, the home of America's favorite form of recreational brain trauma, will find itself a bit less wealthy, after it settled a lawsuit brought by a streaming video software developer.The football league on Thursday finalized a settlement with OpenTV, which had accused the NFL of ripping off parts of eight of its US patents related to video streaming:US Patent 7996861B1 "Flexible interface for secure input of pin code,"US Patent 7,421,729 "Generation and insertion of indicators using an address signal applied to a database,"US Patent 7,028,327 "Using the electronic program guide to synchronize interactivity with broadcast programs."US Patent 7,950,033 "Utilization of relational metadata in a television system "
Goodwall, a US-focused student and graduate professional network which aims to connect young people with college and employment opportunities, has closed a $10.8 million Series A funding raise.The 2014 founded startup says it will be using the new funding to grow the professional network, which has a core demographic of 14-24 year-olds, and more than one million members at this stage.“Our main initiative with this round of funding is hiring new talent in New York to support our expansion,” says Taha Bawa, co-founder and CEO.We are growing our sales team as well, to handle the demand that enterprises have shown in our talent.”“The United States is our current focus and will continue to be the focus throughout 2018.We will be growing with our students and serving them in college,” he adds.
Both the Subaru Legacy sedan and Outback wagon (or crossover, however you want to categorize it) were refreshed for the 2018 model year, so the two models soldier into 2019 with few changes, one of which will be very welcome.The 2019 Subaru Legacy will start at $22,545, which is just $350 more than it was last year.That's a modest price increase considering the base Legacy now gains Subaru's EyeSight suite of active and passive safety systems, including autobrake and adaptive cruise control.Additional standard equipment includes a 6.5-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and satellite radio.Moving up to the Premium trim brings the price up to $24,695, but you get additional kit like larger alloy wheels, heated front seats and side mirrors, dual-zone automatic climate control and a 10-way power driver's seat.If you want something a little more aggressive in the looks department, the Legacy Sport packs even bigger wheels, a sportier front grille and a unique two-tone cloth interior with blue accent stitches and carbon fiber-look trim.
Neymar and Brazil roll out of World Cup and into Twitter memesGet a lower cable bill without making that awkward callYouTuber says he was accused of infringing his own songSteve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man, dies at 90Exclusive look at Hasbro's new Star Wars Forces of Destiny setWanna play Worms of Garfield?
The evidence is increasingly clear: 2018 is the year of the Chinese venture deal.These sorts of top line numbers are always driven by large deals, and the Chinese VC market is no exception.Crunchbase’s analysis shows an almost four-fold increase in the number of venture capital rounds completed last quarter in China compared to the same quarter last year.Venture capital today is being wholly redefined by new crowdsourcing models and of course, the rise of blockchain and the world of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).However, what these aggregates do show is the changing power dynamics between the U.S. and China, particularly in critical future growth markets in the emerging world.Nowhere is that more obvious than in the burgeoning strength of China’s high-flying tech companies.
Volvo launches M, its own mobility companyUK launches national dashcam database for snitching on bad driversBaidu's Apollo teams up with Mobileye to smarten up its decision makingFans of Swedish speed rejoice, the Polestar 1 configurator is liveHere's how the 2020 Audi E-Tron's virtual side mirrors will work2020 Audi E-Tron's stylish, silent and spacious interior revealed
Chinese multinational carmaker SAIC Motor (上汽集团) has launched its own AI lab, according to The Paper.The Shanghai-headquartered SAIC Motor is reportedly the first domestic automaker to establish an AI lab.The new lab will focus on research and development, as well as real-world AI solutions in three fundamental areas—cloud computing, big data and business applications—with the ambition to push forward smart transport, smart manufacturing, and intelligent driving.The AI solutions will be adopted across businesses under the SAIC Motor umbrella, such as rental service and logistics.The company also plans on using AI to improve the efficiency of its car manufacturing.SAIC Motors deputy chief engineer Zu Sijie stressed that the company plans to take advantage of innovative applications of AI as they emerge.
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when Wyze sent me a camera with a laundry list of features that seemed excessive for such a modestly priced device.In order to get the same amount of coverage from non-rotating cameras you’d have to use at least two.You can set the camera in the middle of a room and put it on patrol, if it sees anything move it’ll track it – though it does bear mention that the tracking features are currently still in beta.As mentioned before, the device shoots in 1080p, so you’re getting a full HD image.The picture is sharp and bright, and you can save video and photographs to a gallery in the cloud, with 14 days of included rolling storage, or to an SD card internally.In the looks department it again overachieves.


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The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City issued this news release on Sept. 7, 2016:
MEXICO CITY – The U.S. Embassy’s Foreign Commercial Service welcomed 19 U.S. companies to Mexico this week as part of a U.S. government-led trade mission to Latin America.
The companies visited Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, meeting with Mexican government leaders and businesses in an effort to facilitate new binational business deals. The delegation is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Trade Winds—Latin America trade mission, which is bringing over 100 U.S. companies and organizations to seven markets in Latin America.
Trade Winds facilitated more than 100 business-to-business meetings between the U.S. delegation and Mexican companies and investors.
“The United States and Mexico have a historic trade relationship that has brought economic benefits to both sides of the border,” said U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta S. Jacobson. “Trade missions like Trade Winds help more U.S. companies do business here and encourage more Mexican businesses to invest in the United States. That commercial interaction creates jobs and supports growth in both of our countries.”
This is the ninth year of the Trade Winds trade mission and the second year it has come to Mexico. In 2010, the trade mission supported more than $15 million in business deals in Mexico and surrounding markets.
“President Obama has made the U.S.-Mexico business relationship a key priority,” Jacobson added. “There is no other relationship of greater importance than our relationship with Mexico. This trade mission is an important step for our mutual prosperity, following up on the successes of NAFTA and leading up to continued growth through the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
The trade mission will ultimately stop at seven countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The Commerce Department and Embassy teams expect to facilitate about 400 total business-to-business meetings during the trade mission.
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Beauty and age are far from opposites — just look at Gillean McLeod.
The 60-year-old fashion stylist and model has all eyes on her as she stars in H&M's latest swimwear campaign. The global retailer's ads feature photos of McLeod in a black one-piece swimsuit shown both paired with jeans and by itself.
McLeod, who lives in Los Angeles, California, first launched her career at 53, but it wasn't the first time she considered the career path.
"I thought about modeling when I was a late teen, but I didn’t have the greatest skin and didn’t have the greatest self-confidence," she told TODAY Style. "I think it’s better at this point in my life."
McLeod is so confident now, in fact, that she posed for this shoot without any professional hair or makeup styling — she wasn't even wearing moisturizer.
"I think that women need to be comfortable with themselves. You just have to start with yourself, you can't look at these retouched magazines," she said. "You have to love yourself."
So, what's her secret? McLeod said that she often hikes for two hours up a 3,000 foot climb and does Pilates daily to stay in shape. "I don't swim every day but the pool is my joy, and when I do, I swim about 2,500 meters," she added.
The model said she's been having a great experience since the high-profile shoot, but has been surprised by the response. "I'm inundated with people following me on Instagram and friend requests on Facebook," she said. "It's been a positive response but I've stopped reading everything, because you can go down a rabbit hole with those things."


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The vast majority of advanced manufacturing executives (93%) see the global economy improving, up from 71% a year ago, while 84% expect sector earnings to improve (compared with 58% a year ago). The same percentage expect improving credit availability (up from 68%). This optimism can also be seen in M&A: 73% of executives believe that the number of deals completed by their companies will rise in the next 12 months.
As technology drives disruption, manufacturers are acquiring to adapt to the ever-changing new normal. Acquiring technology, talent, new production capabilities or innovative startups tops the strategic drivers behind acquisitions named by executives (23%), while sector convergence and growth into adjacent business activity was cited by 20%. With the expansion of digital technologies in products and services, as well as on factory floors, acquiring innovation can be faster than developing solutions in-house. Still, almost 90% of executives say valuing these acquisitions is either difficult or very difficult.
Executives also identified trade policy changes and supply chain security as a significant driver for acquisitions. Manufacturers are depending more than ever on their global footprints to provide agility in serving customers in different markets.


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ZTE has pre-loaded Google Now Launcher on its smartphones to offer improved user experience and better value to users. It plans to pre-load Google Now Launcher on all Android 4.4 and above smartphones that have Google Mobile Services and Google Play enabled.
ZTE has worked closely with Google to pre-load Google Now Launcher onto several ZTE devices, including the Blade Vec 4G smartphone, which runs on Android 4.4 and sports the Snapdragon 400 processor with integrated multi-mode 3G/4G LTE designed to deliver a better user experience.
The ZTE Blade Vec 4G and one other ZTE premium device will be officially presented at a ZTE press conference to be held in Hong Kong on July 24.
ZTE has launched the Blade Vec 4G and other premium devices in Europe and in China, and now will make them available in Hong Kong with Google Now Launcher pre-loaded.
On the ZTE Blade Vec 4G smartphone, Google Now Launcher is complimentary to ZTE flagship devices’ voice recognition and control function. ZTE Blade Vec 4G strongly features voice command functionality, including phone unlocking, dialing/answering calls, playing music, navigational controls, and photo-taking.


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Update: 9:00 a.m. ET: On December 19, Staples, Inc. released a statement outlining their findings regarding a data breach at 115 of their retail locations.
Upon the investigation, Staples confirmed initial suspicions that hackers accessed customer payment card information from their point-of-sale systems using malware.
Approximately 1.16 million payment cards were exposed in the breach. Leaked card information includes cardholder names, payment card numbers, expiration dates and card verification codes.
The attack occurred between August 10, 2014 and September 16, 2014 at 113 of their stores. Two of their stores had malware on their systems starting on July 20. The company has released a list of impacted locations along with dates of exposure.
Staples will offer free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and a free credit report to potentially impacted customers. Concerned customers may sign up for these services here. Continue reading


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Regarding the triumphalism attending GM’s IPO, let this post serve as a friendly reminder that GM still owes the U.S. government $43 billion; that its financing arm still owes $14.6 billion; and that its sick friend Chrysler still owes $8.2 billion. Before we start declaring GM an American success story, let’s keep in mind that the government lost $9 billion of taxpayers’ original investment on today’s partial stock sale. GM still has major problems stemming from its pension obligations. Yes, auto sales have rebounded, but that is thanks to a surge in light-truck sales, which are not the kind of clean, green machines that Obama wants GM’s customers to buy. And yes, China bought a 1 percent stake, but analysts are calling this “a diplomatic arrangement” made for the purposes of smoothing rocky U.S.-China relations.
Let’s also keep in mind that many conservatives did not object to the idea of government-backed debtor-in-possession financing for GM and Chrysler at the height of the credit crisis, arguing that bankruptcy was unavoidable but that it might be necessary for the government to play a limited role in keeping the lights on at GM. The counterargument at the time, which one encountered constantly when arguing with bailout proponents, was that GM could not survive a bankruptcy — even a government-financed one — because the damage to its brand would be too great. Like many of the scare stories the automakers were telling at the time, this turned out to be false. It eventually became necessary for both GM and Chrysler to declare bankruptcy, and this did not prove fatal to either company. However, instead of providing simple debtor-in-possession financing, the TARP-financed bailout of the auto companies gave the Obama administration more control over the process, which it used to allow its union supporters to jump the line ahead of senior creditors. That’s exactly the kind of thing conservatives feared, and why we called for the government to have a much more circumscribed role if it was to have any role at all.
Look, no one is rooting for GM to fail, or for thousands of autoworkers to be laid off, or for the taxpayers to lose their entire stake in the company. But it is just ridiculous to start popping champagne corks left and right over the fact that an industrial problem child like GM managed to put its pants on today without falling on its face. Let’s hope the company continues to see sustained profitability and that the losses to taxpayers from the auto bailouts end up being small. But the defenders of those bailouts who are now calling them a “success” haven’t even come close to proving their case. We know that at least one of the automakers’ scare stories — the one about nobody buying cars from a bankrupt auto company — turned out to be wildly overblown, and it is highly likely that the rest were, too. The country might very well have been better off following conservatives’ advice and letting the courts deal with GM and Chrysler. Taxpayers certainly would be.


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As you expected, Google was going to drop the mobile friendly label. Well, as of this morning, the mobile friendly label is officially gone.
Here is a screen shot showing the before and after.
Before with the mobile friendly label:
After, as of this morning, without the mobile friendly label:
This doesn't mean the page is not mobile friendly, it is. It just means Google has officially removed the label from showing up in the mobile search results snippet. Google still has a mobile friendly ranking signal but again, the label itself is now gone.
RankRanger does track this label in their Google features tracker and it shows a huge drop off in the number of results that show the label. So it seems Google has pressed the button to officially remove them as of this morning:
Forum discussion at Twitter.


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The holiday season didn’t bring joy for Macy’s.
Citing declining profits, the retailer will close 40 stores by year-end, with up to 4,800 employees’ positions cut.
About 3,000 of those affected employees come from the 40 stores the retailer is closing, but Macy’s says roughly half are “expected to be placed in other positions.”
The news comes after disappointing holiday sales numbers. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Sales at existing stores in November and December fell 4.7%, and the company said it expects the decline to continue this month. It would be the sharpest holiday period decline since 2008. The company had been expecting fourth quarter sales, which also includes January, to decline between 2% and 3%.
In a press release, Macy’s announced several additional initiatives to cut costs, including consolidating its retail regions, replacing back office positions with technological processes and consolidating its credit and customer service centers.
Macy’s chairman and chief, Terry J. Lundgren, said there would be “short-term pain” as the mega-retailer, as he put it, realigns its resources as part of a long-term vision:
“In light of our disappointing 2015 sales and earnings performance, we are making adjustments to become more efficient and productive in our operations. Moreover, we believe we can operate more effectively with an organization that is flatter and more agile so we can pursue growth and regain market share in our core Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s omnichannel businesses faster and with more intensity. We will continue to invest in strategic initiatives that anticipate emerging customer needs and create shareholder value,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc. “The cost efficiencies represent more than two-thirds of our goal of annual SG&A expense reduction of $500 million, net of growth initiatives, from previously planned levels by 2018. In some cases, there will be short-term pain as we tighten our belt and realign our resources. But our eye is on a long-term vision of Macy’s, Inc. as a dynamic retailer that serves existing customers and acquires new ones through innovative approaches to the marketplace.”
The closings and layoffs are projected save the retailer roughly $400 million annually.


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Where to Shop in Beijing
Gone are the days when Beijing shopping meant traditional qipao garb and Louis Vuitton knockoffs. China's capital is now home to some of the most in-demand shops in the world, from European fast-fashion behemoths to Japanese couture houses. But the real draw is the sudden emergence of homegrown talents, whose designs reflect a burgeoning aesthetic unique to China.
For the Beijing visitor operating with limited shopping time, here are the city’s must-see boutiques.
To read my article in full, visit CNN.com.


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Walmart is reportedly in talks to acquire a minority stake in Flipkart, India’s biggest eCommerce company.
According to a report by Reuters, which cited two sources familiar with the matter, Walmart is eyeing the minority stake as a way to get some of the fast-growing online retail industry in India. Walmart is reportedly looking to invest $750 million–$1 billion in Flipkart. The final amount it invests and the size of the stake are dependent on how talks between the two play out, as well as what the overall valuation of Flipkart is. Another option being bandied about is the two collaborating to use each other’s expertise in retail and supply chains.
If Walmart is successful, it would put it in more direct competition with Amazon, which has been expanding its business in South Asia and has become the largest competitive threat to Flipkart in India. "With Amazon slowly taking a lead over the Indian players, all these unicorns, including Flipkart and Snapdeal, are out there in the market to raise funds," the source said in the report. "Companies like Walmart would be more long-term investors, but there aren't too many like them to write such big checks."
The report noted that Flipkart has a value of around $11.5 billion. Earlier in the year, it was valued at as high as $15 billion, but increased competition has knocked its off its perch by a few billion.
Described by Karen Webster as retail’s brewing Rumble in the Jungle, the ongoing faceoff between Amazon and Walmart bears an almost uncanny resemblance to the legendary boxing showdown between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Amazon plays the Ali role as the nimble, inventive and infinitely creative challenger, while Walmart slots in nicely for Foreman, a big, powerful incumbent with blows few can stand up to.


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Turkey is looking into solutions to help the country’s struggling restaurants and cafes, whose operations have been disrupted by the lockdown measures enacted to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Turkey’s Health Ministry is working on a formula that includes enabling eateries and cafes to open in provinces with a noteworthy decline in infections, according to a report in the Turkish language daily, Hürriyet.
Businesses have been disrupted for nearly four months and are limited to only serving takeouts. The working hours have been limited in line with measures that Ankara reimposed as of November to curb rising COVID-19 cases. Tradespeople have been asking lately for permission to open their doors to customers.
The country is currently imposing lockdowns on weekends and nighttime curfews on weekdays.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month announced that the country would provide financial support to the affected businesses.
The support can be claimed by businesses, such as restaurants and cafes, whose 2019 turnover was at TL 3 million ($426,433) and below. Businesses, whose turnover has decreased by 50%, will be provided between TL 2,000 and TL 40,000 payment support for loss of turnover.
The government in January also announced it would be postponing income tax, withholding tax and sales tax payments of businesses that have seen activities temporarily suspended.
Cafes, cinemas, various sports facilities, tea gardens, internet cafes, amusement parks and Turkish baths that have been closed due to lockdowns will benefit from the move.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca last week signaled the potential easing of the restrictions.
Koca said it could be possible to ease certain restrictions in provinces in accordance with the criteria that the advisory board will determine. But he underlined that the committee recommends not rushing to ease measures.


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While Taiwan may be a thriving and independent island, they do bow to what they consider true royalty these days: the technology of 3D printing. And they are certainly not alone. The Taiwanese, however, are known as the masters in manufacturing of technology, especially for items like laptops, smartphones, and much more. It’s a country centered on everything high-tech–and they welcome and embrace innovation.
Today though, it’s not just about embracing 3D printing technology, they are making it– and history as well, as the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) debuted the first made-in-Taiwan 3D metal printer, the AM100/AM250, at the ITRI Southern Region Campus in Taiwan.
Geared toward the jewelry industry for Taiwan, with this particular unveiling especially, Horng Ji-bin, Center Director at the Additive Manufacturing and Laser Application Center of ITRI Southern Region Campus, made it clear that 3D printing is beneficial to the jewelry makers and manufacturers due to its ability to increase efficiency and speed in production exponentially.
Horng Ji-bin boiled it down to the reverence the technology–and the people making use of it to change the world–deserve, with content as queen, and technology as king.
“With king plus the queen, the product will be the prince or princess, and ITRI Southern Region Campus aims at providing the total solution for all the jewelry companies and designers to do its low-volume production,” said Horng Ji-bin.
Teaming up with Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., S-Tech Co., and Chia Yi Steel Co. with the goal to manufacture 3D printers and materials further, ITRI has also been responsible for introducing binder jetting, sheet lamination, and directed energy deposition (DED) in the area of jewelry ‘printing.’
“[Simplifying] the manufacturing process and breaking all the design barrier are advantages out of jewelry printing,” said Horng Ji-bin.Powered by Aniwaa
The AM100/AM250 3D metal printer features a build volume of 100 x 100 x 100 mm and allows for use of materials like stainless steel, titanium alloy, and cobalt-chromium alloy. It retails at less than NT$10 million, which converts to roughly $325,000 USD.
It’s certainly no surprise that metal 3D printing would begin to make an emergence in Taiwan, as the technology, while deemed previously only for the upper echelons of industry due to its expense, is where it’s at for that revolution everyone keeps going on about. 3D metal printers are becoming more affordable, and outside the major industrial sectors like automotive and aerospace, the technology is taking its place in the jewelry industry, offering consumers a way to attain unique pieces made of strong materials–to include varieties of plating like gold and silver, as well as many finishes–and at good prices.
ITRI, headquartered in Hsinchu, was founded in 1973. Their focus is on innovation in technology, coupled with a commitment to prodding businesses along in gaining the competitive edge as well as becoming ‘sustainable.’ They play an important role in the economy of Taiwan, and have worked with over 250 companies, helping many individuals grow into the role of CEO and other leading positions. While working to cultivate businesses and innovative practices within Taiwan, they also maintain a focus on working with a variety of partners around the world.
Discuss the unveiling of this new Taiwanese 3D printer in the First 3D Metal Printer for Taiwan forum thread over at 3DPB.com.
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6th October 2022 - 3 min read
Digital payment service provider Visa Malaysia has rolled out two new interactive, game-based initiatives to help improve financial literacy among Malaysian youths. These include a local literacy programme that utilises a boardgame, and an educational football-themed video game.
According to Visa, the local financial literacy programme – which is to be made available in ten universities and colleges around Malaysia for – is launched in partnership with a local financial literacy educational institution, GProvision. Primarily, it utilises a personal finance boardgame, Money Quotient, to teach concepts such as money management, investments, loans, tax, and retirement – but will be complemented by educational talks as well.
The programme is set to run for three months, until the end of 2022. It will hopefully enable youths to learn how to make informed decisions with regard to personal finances as they experience real-life simulated scenarios.
Meanwhile, the second initiative involves the global launch of Visa’s upgraded interactive video game, Financial Football, which is based on the National Football League (NFL). Free to play, the fast-paced game was first introduced back in 2005, but was recently updated with new features and challenge modes.
As it was before, the main objective of Financial Football is still to teach the public basic financial literacy knowledge, including budgeting, saving, as well as credit and debt management. Individuals learn these by taking part in football matches, which they win by answering multiple choice as well as true-or-false questions.
Following the latest upgrade, Financial Football now also includes new questions focusing on topics such as cryptocurrencies, as well as the ability to join men’s and women’s teams and tournaments. There is also a second mode designed specifically for small business owners, featuring questions about starting and managing a business, and more. Additionally, the game can now be downloaded for free to play on your computers and phones.
“The launch of Financial Football and the onsite sessions in local universities to conduct financial literacy boardgame sessions will empower young Malaysians to increase their knowledge on money management and help them to be financially savvy when they enter the workforce,” said the country manager for Visa Malaysia, Ng Kong Boon, adding that the gameplay approach is the best way to do so.
Ng also said that the two initiatives are part of Visa’s broader approach in driving financial education among the public. They are also in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023, which aims to promote financial literacy within the country.
Aside from these latest initiatives, Visa Malaysia had also previously launched other game-based efforts, including the financial literacy web game, Mind Your Ringgit.
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Stay tuned for what’s to come next in the personal finance world


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Sanjay Kapoor, the company's chairman, said offering phones at all price segments was key to its beating Samsung.
"Very clearly the focus for Micromax has been to understand what the consumer requirement is and to plug that consumer requirement with products, features, services, which appeal to that segment," Kapoor told CNBC at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
"One size fits all…does not appeal to the Indian market and therefore we started tailor-making products for different segments in the market place."
Micromax's flagship smartphones, the Canvas Hue and Canvas Nitro, target the $150 to $200 segment. It's certainly a popular price point – over 40 percent of smartphones shipments in India were in the $100 to £200 bracket in the fourth quarter of last year.
In contrast to companies such as Apple and Samsung, Kapoor said Micromax launches "close to 25, 30 phones in a year" in different segments.


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Chipmaker Nvidia is "working really hard" with Microsoft on its next iteration of Surface tablets, according to its CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang.
"Now we're going to bring it with the second-generation Surface. We're working really hard on it, and we hope that it's going to be a big success," Huang said in an interview with CNET.
Huang also added that, at the launch, Surface RT missed out on Microsoft Outlook Mail service. However it will be included in the upcoming RT 8.1 update, scheduled to release later this year.
CNET speculates that Qualcomm and Nvidia will be the chip suppliers for the second-generation Surface tablets. However, Qualcomm's official statement is yet to come. It is also said the new Surface tablets are to sport a smaller screen size.
Microsoft may be working on number of variants for Surface RT tablets based on screen sizes of seven inches or more, giving Qualcomm a chance to fit its processors in other variants.
The computer maker was recently thought to be working on a seven inch Surface tablet to act as a companion tablet for the upcoming Xbox One game console.
Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft, hinted last month that new versions of Surface RT and Surface Pro would arrive in 2014 during the company's Worldwide Partner's Conference held in July.
Since the current-gen Surface RT carries Nvidia Tegra 3 processors, the next-gen Surface tablets are expected to sport Nvidia's latest quad-core Tegra 4 or Tegra 4i processors if the tablet features 4G connectivity.
Last month, Microsoft slashed its Surface tablet prices by 30% because of its poor sales worldwide. According to IDC (International Data Corporation), Microsoft shipped around 9000,000 Surface tablets in the Q1 of 2013 with majority of the Surface Pro units.
It has been speculated that the cut in Surface tablet prices may be a step by Microsoft to clear the shelves for the next-gen Surface tablets.
There is no official word from the Microsoft on this issue. Nvidia officials are also declining to disclose any information other than Huang's comments.


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And 2016 is finally coming to an end!
That is why we would like to share the 2016 highlights on mobile advertising with you in a series of posts discussing the most relevant trends of our market in 2016
Ad fraud: Half of digital spend in 2016
Mobile programmatic advertising is poised to take over the world. With the evolution of internet connections, machine learning, and big data, programmatic is becoming a consensus in the market. However, a research made by eMarketer in July 2016 shows that 48% of respondents are concerned about fraud/viewability in the market, while 42% complain of transparency issues, and 41% agree that mobile programmatic lacks measurable ROI. Half of the mobile ad business, worth about $15 billion in the U.S. and $2.1 billion on the U.K., shows signs of fraud. This can, however, happen for many reasons, from tracking problems to server latency.
The issue is being tackled by the market in recent months. Initiatives such as TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group), and MRC (Media Rating Council), that enable advertisers to combat click fraud and the generalized mistrust of ad-networks, DSPs, and exchanges, are slowly gaining relevance.
The U.S. government is already on the matter. In July 2016, senators wrote a letter to the FCC asking for more investigations and criminal prosecution of fraudsters in the U.S. This will likely be quite discussed in 2017, as the industry grows and regulators take more interest in the business.
Ad blockers: The war is not over
One of the most polemic subjects of the year involved German media giant Axel Springer, which operates top European newspapers, such as Bild and Die Welt (as well as a recently bought controlling stake in Business Insider). Axel has a history of fighting companies that threaten their business model. Since the recent launch of iOS 9 – that supports ad blockers – the media mogul decided to sue ad blocker developers. This is happening because ad blockers knock down what is now the main source of income to traditional newspapers: advertisements. German courts are yet to decide on the issue.
While there’s no widely spread threat to in-app mobile advertising, some pressing issues must be considered, such as fraud and ultra-intrusive ads. The balance between ad viewability and how invasive it is must be controlled carefully to monetize consumers without bothering them with meaningless and ill-targeted ads.